Reverse modifier order

[trans]

In Loglan and Lojban the order of modifying words is like English --the secondary word comes before the primary word it modifies. In Loglan 1, JCB chooses this order because it is the most common among the most widely spoken languages in the world. But I propose to reverse this order on more logical grounds.

As a computer programmer one of the most common activities I must tackle is the naming of things --often quite abstract concepts. In doing so it is not uncommon to use modifying adjectives to specialize a name among a set of related terms. For example, function names like fullLayout() and partialLayout(). The problem that arises in such circumstance, and it is a problem that occurs throughout systems development, not just naming functions, is that such names do not sort well.

To clarify, a good analogy is the date format. The common way of writing a date is month/day/year, but programmers tend to write year-month-day. This is called ISO standard, and the reason dates are written and stored this way in programs is because they sort in chronological order the same as numerical order from first digit to last. So too for modifying words. By placing the primary word first and secondary word second, natural sorting is preserved.

I believe it is also favorable b/c it provides the subject matter upfront. Holding modifiers in limbo awaiting the context to which they apply is mentally inefficient. One might argue against this for the reason of emphasis --that by delivering the primary word last emphasizes the subject. In some cases that might be true, but I would argue a special cmavo-marked constructs could serve that purpose when it is truly useful.

[thetommoore]

I'd contest the idea that the best way to describe the roles of these words is primary and secondary, particularly when this order is under question. More directly, though, I'm not sure that nouns are necessarily more primary than adjectives, or even that adjectives have to be the modifiers (assuming this is what you meant by subjects and modifiers). At the end of the day, both parts of speech are modifying each other's meanings to produce the result, or at least one could see it either way.

That being said, it makes sense to have the semantic focal point of a sentence sooner, as it naturally narrows the space of possible meanings on behalf of the listener, though whether this makes it more manageable is another question.